Journeyman is my favorite EC album….mainly because I went along to see him play on this tour at the Mt Smart Supertop which was one of my very first concerts. So special memories of the concert and of thrashing the album at the time. Also this opened the door to me discovering his back catalog as hadn’t been exposed to too much bar the radio hits till this time.

I like his playing the most on the John Mayall Bluesbreakers album – that singing tone, super tasty phrasing and he’s just doing his guitar thang so well on it. Everything that makes him a good guitarist is right there in that intro of All Your Love.

I am partial to Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concert. It was the return of a man comng back from the depths of drug addiction with a little help from his friends. Sure it’s a long way from him being at his best but he has a stella set of friends playing with him and it brought him back to the spotlight.

I’m going to go slightly left field and nominate his playing on the Kate Bush song “And So is Love” (on The Red Shoes)….simple but inspired and largely reminiscent of his earlier, classic Gibson sound. A lost gem from his discography I reckon – it seems like other artists were a lot better at drawing out the best in him.

Unplugged. Mass market popular, easy to approach, radio friendly and well recorded. Not my usual criteria for favourite album by an artist but sometimes you need this “ease” in life and when I do it’s Unplugged that spins on the turntable.